Schlissel to hold press conference to announce new Athletic Director

University President Mark Schlissel will hold a press conference at 11:15 a.m. Friday to announce a new Athletic Director to replace Jim Hackett. Michigan has hired Connecticut athletic director Warde Manuel to fill the position, a source confirmed to the Daily on Wednesday. The Detroit Free Press, Detroit News and ESPN.com all reported the news Wednesday morning.

Manuel, 47, already has ties to Michigan. He played football for coach Bo Schembechler in the 1980s before serving as assistant athletic director and then associate athletic director from 1998 to 2005. He gained athletic director experience at Buffalo from 2005 to 2012 and at Connecticut, where he has worked for the past three years.

At Michigan, he was teammates with current head football coach Jim Harbaugh, also ran track and earned a bachelor’s degree as well as master’s degrees in social work and business.

The University announced Dec. 2 that it would begin the search for a full-time athletic director to replace Hackett, who has held the position since Oct. 31, 2014. Hackett enjoyed a successful 15-month tenure, during which he hired football coach Jim Harbaugh and signed a then-record-breaking apparel deal with Nike.